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Gilmore said today he wants to buy the city-owned parking lots next to his entertainment complex so he can build a "House of Blues-type" performance venue, a 200-room boutique hotel, 40 condominiums, a 250-space parking ramp and two ground-level "piazzas" that could include "everything from a piano bar to an art gallery."

The performance venue would be built below the piazzas while the parking garage, hotel and condominiums would be located in a 20-story tower, Gilmore said.

Definitely would be awesome, but is it worth getting excited about yet?

I think he talked about doing this 2 or 3 years ago. My impression was that the Gilmore Collection couldn't come up with financing for the project at that time because they stretched themselves too thin building Blue Water Grill and remodeling Mangiamo! plus opening Red Ball. How much of that is true though, I'm not sure.

Hopefully it'll come together this time.

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Also dbrok, I think Gilmore's plans were put on hold because the owners of 50 Monroe were going to buy the lot in question. Apparently that's not going to happen now. I told you guys all the big news would come out of the Parking Commission this year.

For anyone who wasn't on here in 2005, here's the original discussion:

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I think he talked about doing this 2 or 3 years ago. My impression was that the Gilmore Collection couldn't come up with financing for the project at that time because they stretched themselves too thin building Blue Water Grill and remodeling Mangiamo! plus opening Red Ball. How much of that is true though, I'm not sure.

Hopefully it'll come together this time.

I think a 20 story infill project right there would be pretty darn awesome. It's right across from the arena and less than 2 blocks from lots of great restaurants and bars and GRAM.

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Can anyone tell me the best way to get online map / outline of property boundry lines from above?

www.gvmc-regis.org

I'm interested the most in how these "piazzas" will be laid out. 35,000 square foot footprint takes up the entire parking lot. So it sounds like: underground theater, 2 story piazza section, parking ramp (3 - 4 floors), 6 story hotel and then condos on top.

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I actually find https://www.accesskent.com/Property/ to be much more friendly. Type in the address and when at the parcel description click the Get Map. It's Firefox friendly and it has been updated to allow you to zoom in, out, identify, etc. No longer is it the static satellite picture it used to be.

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I'm usually pretty hesitant about architecture but if the project ended up looking something like that I would be pretty pleased. It is very modern and I think would serve as a nice contrast to the old-school brick BOB. I'm also excited about the lighting, Fulton Street sure would start to look pretty glitzy.

Nothing yet.

Maybe this development will be like Epicentre in Charlotte, on a smaller scale. I guess you could call the different plazas in it "piazzas".

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Does anyone know if they want to bring in a House of Blues or did they mean something "like" House of Blues?

The article says "like" the House of Blues.

I found out that Greg Gilmore doesn't want to shell out any money for renderings until he locks up the land. Guess we'll have to wait. I might try to make next Tuesday's City Commission meeting and see what he presents (site plan, conceptuals, etc.). He's already spent $200,000, so he must have something in mind.

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Maybe this is part of what Rich DeVos meant when he said Fulton & Monroe is the Time Square of Grand Rapids.

Fantastic news. I would love to see an actual House of Blues / HOB Hotel. A W would be nice too (as Metrogrkid mentioned) but W's are usually a little bigger. The W does have the new concept "A Loft" (www.alofthotels.com which might fit.